Posts from — March 2008

The most recent post on That Other Coffee Blog about roasting with an audience got me thinking about my own experiences roasting coffee in a public (or semi-public) environment. At my last shop our roasting room was actually set apart from the retail floor; we used to have our 12k Samiac sitting on the retail floor, but roasters make a lot of noise, and we discovered that we were annoying the customers with the smoke and noise as much as we had trouble focusing with the goings-on of a busy shop all around us. Perhaps more importantly, as our wholesale business grew we started running out of room for the green coffee bags.

So we moved roasting operations to a room in the back, into the conference room we used to rent out. Customers would still frequently wander back to the roasting room and ask what we were doing. Invariably they would ask if I was “grinding beans” in the roasting machine. I’m not sure why grinding is always the first conclusion people jump to–I don’t know of any food production industry that requires a 1350lb, burning cast-iron monstrosity to grind anything–but there you are.

The pros of roasting for an audience are pretty clear…you become an ambassador for your coffee knowledge, you help educate customers about the finer points of specialty coffee and the time and effort it takes to produce, and you build a reputation as a coffee pro. The disadvantages are a little less obvious, but they’re definitely worth considering. Frequently stopping to answer questions can take your attention away from the beans, and I’d be lying if I said that it never happened that I burned a batch because I was explaining to a customer all the ways a roaster prevents burning a batch. Also, the more busy the wholesale side of things gets, the more pressed for time you are on a daily basis. I did occasionally have to politely ask interested customers to come back another time as I was busily packaging hundreds of pounds of coffee for a wholesale shipment.

Now I’m in a somewhat ideal situation: my roasting room and cupping lab is in the basement of our retail space. On busy days where focus is important, I can kind of shut myself in and work uninterrupted. But we also have a street-facing garage door that we can open, so there’s plenty of opportunity to hold roasting demonstrations and cupping sessions. In short, I can be as public as I like, which is great. I like roasting for an audience, but I also tend to get “zoned into the beans” and once I get into that flow I like being able to run with it.

Making your own coffee-flavored liqueur is actually much easier than it sounds. While your results may not be on the level of proper Kahlua or Bailey’s at first, the beauty of this simple recipe is both in how simple it is to make and how versatile it is to experiment with.

The essential idea behind a basic coffee liqueur is to make what’s called “simple syrup” (1 part sugar dissolved in 1 part boiling water), but using double-brewed coffee instead of water. Then infuse it with a high-proof alcohol such as vodka and add flavor extract. Sound simple? It is!

Here’s most everything you’ll need to get started:

• 1 part water
• 1 part coffee grounds, ground for cone filter
• 1 part brown sugar
• 1 part vodka (90+ proof)
• a few drops of vanilla extract
• mesh or cone filter for the coffee

1. Start by boiling water for the coffee on a stovetop.
2. Put the coffee in the filter and pour the boiling water over it slowly. I simply opened the top of my coffee machine put the coffee in the mesh filter, and poured the water directly over the grounds, letting it brew into the carafe.
3. Quickly take the brew you just produced and pour it back over the grounds a second time. You’ll need two cups/carafes to do this, since the filter needs to go back over the carafe you just used as you pour the brew back in. This will produce a very strong concentrate of coffee.
4. While the brew is still hot, immediately add the brown sugar and stir to dissolve.
5. Add 2-3 drops of vanilla extract for every 8oz. of brew you use, and stir in.
6. Add the vodka and stir.
7. Pour the entire mixture into a bottle and cap tightly. Put in the fridge for a few days so it can infuse.

That’s all there is to it. Feel free to take this recipe and experiment with it–use light rum instead of vodka, for example, or use almond extract instead of vanilla to make amaretto liqueur, or mix in one part unsweetened cocoa powder to make a mocha liqueur. There’s a ton of possibilities.

Occasionally on this blog I post drink ideas such as the Cafe Cubano and the Dufrain. Though I get ideas from all over, I like to experiment on my own from time to time with making new types of drinks. Sometimes they work out, and I’ll continue to share ideas on this blog as I discover them. Sometimes they don’t work out. Just for fun, I thought I’d share some drink ideas I experimented with that didn’t come out as I’d hoped.

• Brewing star anise with the coffee grounds–When coffee became scarce and expensive in New Orleans in the early 20th century, many turned to adding chicory root to stretch out their coffee rations despite its unpleasant taste. In that spirit I tried using unpodded star anise to add a rich licorice flavor to my coffee brew. Unfortunately the result came out something like dirty, sour tea. (For the record, anise makes a great tisane by itself.)
• The “tequilatte”–some liquors complement coffee very well. Tequila is not really one of them. In the interest of full disclosure here, I’m not a huge tequila fan. Patron makes a coffee liqueur that’s acceptable, but since I feel like adding coffee-flavored liqueur to coffee is kind of cheating, I used regular tequila. It was…okay in coffee by itself, but adding it to a latte? Blech.
• Vanilla extract and sugar in place of vanilla syrup–I typically prefer my coffee black, but that’s not to say I don’t enjoy sugar or syrups occasionally. In a rush one morning I noticed I was out of vanilla syrup, so I hurriedly used a packet of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead. Basically the same thing, right? It wasn’t the same.
• Irish espresso–a macchiatto is just an espresso with a dollop of milk, so I thought replacing the milk with irish cream would be a home run. Unfortunately the thickness of Bailey’s turned the result to a dense sludge. It actually didn’t taste that bad, but its cough-syrup-like consistency was off-putting.